Human Nature

It’s Monday November the tenth, 1913. And you’re completely human, sir.

Martha Jones

Synopsis

A schoolteacher called John Smith dreams of adventures in time and space…

Review

Human Nature is an example of this era of Doctor Who taking stories from expanded media and canonising them by including them in the show. It also marks the start of a trilogy of stories where the Doctor is not front and centre. In this two-parter, Tennant plays a chameleon arched version of the Doctor who has every cell of his body rewritten, making him completely human, dreaming of his adventures in the TARDIS. In Blink, he and Martha are trapped in 1969 and barely feature in the narrative.

That’s the box. The Blue Box. It’s always there. Like a magic carpet. This funny little box that transports me to faraway places.

John Smith

Human Nature is the sort of story that slots into late in a series’ run, where the Doctor and companion really trust each other. On fact, Both it and concluding part are historicals in which both Martha and the audience are burdened by the knowledge of what happens the year after this story is set, and as a result, it feels very tonally different to a lot of Series 3. In fact, it feels different to a lot of other modern stories. Cornell has written a story that feels touched by the looming shadow of the First World War and the associated loss of innocence. Accordingly, it is quite serious in tone and bleak.

You had to, didn’t you? You had to go and fall in love with a human. And it isn’t me.

Martha Jones

The Doctor is being hunted by the Family of Blood, an invisible foe, who are able to control humans in order to meet their own ends. The Family are undoubtedly creepy, but the best performance has to be Harry Lloyd’s as Baines and Son of Mine, who is especially so. This is helped by the direction of Charles Palmer, but Lloyd’s performance feels so alien once he is under the influence. The Family are able to smell the Doctor’s presence, and it is down to Lloyd that this doesn’t feel silly but unsettling. This is combined with Lloyd’s staccato, machine-gun delivery of certain lines. Baines is a fairly nasty piece of work before he is taken over by Son of Mine, standing by as Hutchinson bullies Tim Latimer, an intelligent student at the school, and racially abuses Martha. Once possessed he becomes irredemable. There is a wonderfully evil moment as he kills the doorman at the dance that John and Joan are attending – “I didn’t spare you” – is one of the coldest moments I can think of in Doctor Who.

Both Baines and Jenny, who becomes Mother of Mine, are the most rounded of the characters taken over by the Family. Sister of Mine looks creepy with her red balloon and the incidental music, but we don’t really learn very much about her in this part of the story. Equally, we don’t really know much about Father of Mine. Jenny’s conversion is the one that really hurts though, as she is Martha’s only ally in this story, and when she is taken, completely isolates her in this story. This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back and Martha from that point onwards is determined to open the fob watch and remind the Doctor of who he is.

This story is a really strong one for Martha. She is stuck in a situation that is so out of her control, where her race, job and gender cause her difficulties. The show deserves some credit for rowing back on its line in The Shakespeare Code, where the Doctor tells her to simply walk around as if she owns the place. Here, we witness a racial slur against her by two boys; boys whom it is noted by Martha’s ill-fated co-worker Jenny will surely go on to run the country. She has no way of leaving without the Doctor, who despite having rewritten every essence of his being, is still hung up on Rose and falls in love with Joan, a matron. It feels as though it’s not possible to kick Martha when she is down more than usual, but Human Nature manages it. Freema Agyeman does do a great job as Martha here, and makes herself a nuisance in the best way, trying to keep John Smith on track and safe from the Family of Blood. The emotional pain that she goes through in watching John and Joan’s courtship is best reflected as she expresses her exasperation at the video the Doctor has left her with. In the dormant TARDIS, she states that the Doctor hasn’t told her what to do in the event of an alien invasion nor if he falls in love.

David Tennant has the task of playing John Smith, who shares some character traits with the Doctor but also feels sufficiently distinct to him. Smith is less confident, lacking the swagger and the ability to command the room of his Time Lord self. It doesn’t feel as though his Doctor would be comfortable teaching in this school or this era, teaching children how to fire guns or allowing other children to beat others. There are glimpses of his Doctor, and I don’t believe that Smith is a bad person, but he is not the same moral fibre as the Doctor. It’s a good performance from Tennant, making John Smith feel lived in. He has great chemistry with Jessica Hynes’ Joan Redfern, which feels like the most successful and developed one-off relationship for the Tenth Doctor. She is a war widow, torn by the fact that she is employed in a school that is preparing boys to be soldiers and teaching them that it is honourable. Like Martha, Joan is in a society that expects certain things from women – she bemoans the fact that having been widowed, she does not feel able to be happy.

Verdict: Human Nature is one of the strongest entries in Who canon. 10/10.

Cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), Jessica Hynes (Joan Redfern), Rebekah Staton (Jenny), Thomas Sangster (Tim Latimer), Harry Lloyd (Baines), Tom Palmer (Hutchinson), Gerard Horan (Clark), Lor Wilson (Lucy Cartwright), Pip Torrens (Rocastle), Matthew White (Phillips), Derek Smith (Doorman) & Peter Bourke (Mr Chambers).

Writer: Paul Cornell

Director: Charles Palmer

Producer: Susie Liggat

Composer: Murray Gold

Broadcast Date: 26 May 2007

Behind the Scenes

• This story and The Family of Blood are based on Paul Cornell’s novel of the same name.
• The sketches in John Smith’s notebook mark the first time the revived series acknowledged that there had been incarnations prior to the Ninth Doctor.
• The story was originally intended to feature Martha’s family, with Martha coming from this time period.

Cast Notes

• Jessica Hynes had previously played Glory Bee, Carla and a Woman in the Eighth Doctor Big Finish story Invaders from Mars. She would also go on to play Verity Newman in The End of Time, Part Two.
• Thomas Sangster also appeared in The Mind’s Eye and The Bride of Peladon.
• Pip Torrens played Charlie Gibbs in Eldrad Must Die! and Kenton in Break the Ice for Big Finish Productions.

Best Moment

I do really like the cricket ball sequence with the piano. It’s a hint that the Doctor is still there in John Smith, bubbling away under the surface.

Best Quote

Mankind doesn’t need warfare and bloodshed to prove itself. Everyday life can provide honor and valor. Let’s hope that from now on this country can find its heroes in smaller places. In the most ordinary of deeds.

John Smith

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